Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am Rocks Out (and Drives a Robot) at FIRST

After backing the FIRST robotics competition all season long, Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am appeared at the national competition in St. Louis today, driving a robot and encouraging the competitors in advance of the band's concert for FIRST tonight.

The leader of the mega-popular pop group Black Eyed Peas has been a supporter of the FIRST robotic competition all season long, appearing with competition founder Dean Kamen at the the kickoff of the 2011 season. This weekend, at the FIRST national championships in St. Louis, he put his driving skills on the line.

Following the opening ceremonies of championships, will.i.am and Kamen went head-to-head in a FIRST Tech Challenge match. The FTC class of competition features smaller bots than the FIRST Robotics Competition that is the headliner event. But FTC teams must build machines that can clear plenty of hurdles.

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An FTC game involves two alliances, each including two teams. Following an opening 40-second period in which the FTC bots must operate autonomously, the drivers get to leap to the remote controls. Once the drivers are in control, they attempt to get the bots to grasp batons. Then they drive the bots over hills and other obstacles to place the batons inside moving canisters to score. In the final moments of the match, the drivers try to place their bots onto a platform that teeter-totters back and forth. If the two teams on an alliance can both get their bots up onto the platform, they score extra points.

Kamen and will.i.am acted as honorary coaches in the FTC exhibition, with Kamen backing team 2859 from McLean, Va., and will.i.am behind team 3509 from Folsom, Calif. (nicknamed "The Dirty Bots" in his honor),. When the California team gave the singer a turn at the controls, he performed admirably, says sophomore Millun Atluir, who is competing in his second year of FTC. "He did pretty well," Atluir says. "His driving blocked the opponents so we could get the magnetic baton." Indeed, when the final buzzer sounded, will.i.am's team had defeated the competition 73-9.

Getting involved in FIRST was a curious journey for will.i.am. At panel discussion entitled "Mothers of Invention," in which Will's mom Debra Adams appeared alongside mothers of inventors like Kamen and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, will.i.am explained that he first got involved after driving a Segway personal transporter around backstage and wondering, "who invented this thing?" When he found out it was Kamen—who he'd previously met at a TED conference—will.i.am got in touch about spreading the word on FIRST.

What about will.i.am himself—was he a gearhead as a kid? "He loved to play with Transformers. He was always taking them apart," Debra Adams says. While signing autographs on the backs of FIRST competitors' T-shirts, she explained to PM that she's excited Will embraced the FIRST competition. He has a younger brother, now 17, whom she hopes will be inspired by the science and technology message of the competition.

But once the day's competition is over, there's still time to have fun: The Black Eyed Peas are playing a concert for the FIRST competitors in the Edwards Jones Dome tonight, right next to where the competitions are taking place.